British Conservative MP says he was detained & deported by Djibouti over criticism of China

A British Conservative MP has said that he was detained and deported by the African nation of Djibouti over his criticism of China.

Tim Loughton, the MP for East Worthing and Shoreham, has said he was held for more than seven hours at the airport earlier this month. He has been an MP since 1997 and has previously served as Deputy Chairman on the Home Affairs Select Committee.

Djibouti has seen billions of dollars of investments from China and is considered close to China. It is home to China’s first foreign military base.

Loughton is among the seven British MPs who have been sanctioned by China for their criticism of Beijing’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang province.

Loughton told The Daily Telegraph that his “intimidating” detention and subsequent expulsion were “direct consequences” of his criticism of China. He said it was “just the latest example of intimidation that the seven sanctioned parliamentarians have suffered over the last three years”.

Loughton said as soon as the authorities in Djibouti learnt he is a British MP, his passport was checked and “things turned decidedly frosty”.

Loughton said he was held in in the arrivals section for an hour without any explanation and was then taken to a holding room where he was in solitary detention for three hours.

“They gave me no reason. I kept saying: ‘Why?’ and they could not tell me. In short, it was a highly intimidating and very lonely experience in a very strange country,” said Loughton to the paper.

Following the encounter, Loughton said he raised the issue with Deputy Foreign Secretary Andrew Mitchell. He said he also wrote Djibouti’s ambassador via the British Foreign Office to protest about the “outrageous” behaviour that he was subjected to.